Over the past 50 years, there have been substantial improvements in the genetic production potential of ruminant animals (sheep, cattle and deer). Levels of meat, milk or fiber production that equal an animal's genetic potential may be attained within controlled feeding systems, where animals are fully fed with energy dense, conserved forages and grains. However, the majority of temperate farming systems worldwide rely on the in situ grazing of pastures. Nutritional constraints associated with temperate pastures can prevent the full expression of an animal's genetic potential. This is illustrated by a comparison between milk production by North American grain-fed dairy cows and New Zealand pasture-fed cattle. North American dairy cattle produce, on average, twice the milk volume of New Zealand cattle, yet the genetic base is similar within both systems (New Zealand Dairy Board and United States Department of Agriculture figures). Significant potential therefore exists to improve the efficiency of conversion of pasture nutrients to animal products through the correction of nutritional constraints associated with pastures.
Lignin Biosynthetic Pathway
Lignin is an insoluble polymer that serves as a matrix around the polysaccharide components of some plant cell walls, and that is primarily responsible for the rigidity of plant stems. Generally, the higher the lignin content, the more rigid the plant. For example, tree species synthesize large quantities of lignin, with lignin constituting 20%–30% of the dry weight of wood. The lignin content of grasses ranges from 2–8% of dry weight and changes during the growing season. In addition to providing rigidity, lignin aids in water transport within plants by rendering cell walls hydrophobic and water impermeable. Lignin also plays a role in disease resistance of plants by impeding the penetration and propagation of pathogenic agents.
Forage digestibility is affected by both lignin composition and concentration. Lignin is largely responsible for the digestibility, or lack thereof, of forage crops, with small increases in plant lignin content resulting in relatively high decreases (>10%) in digestibility (Buxton and Russell, Crop. Sci. 28:5358–558, 1988). For example, crops with reduced lignin content provide more efficient forage for cattle, with the yield of milk and meat being higher relative to the amount of forage crop consumed. During normal plant growth, an increase in the maturity of the plant stem is accompanied by a corresponding increase in lignin content and composition that causes a decrease in digestibility. This change in lignin composition is to one of increasing syringyl:guaiacyl (S:G) ratio. When deciding on the optimum time to harvest forage crops, farmers must therefore choose between a high yield of less digestible material and a lower yield of more digestible material.
Lignin is formed by polymerization of three different monolignols, para-coumaryl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol and sinapyl alcohol that are synthesized in a multistep pathway, with each step in the pathway being catalyzed by a different enzyme. The three monolignols are derived from phenylalanine or tyrosine in a multistep process and are then polymerized into lignin by a free radical mechanism. Following polymerization, para-coumaryl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol and sinapyl alcohol are converted into the p-hydroxyphenyl (H), guaiacyl (G) and syringyl (S) units of lignin, respectively. While these three types of lignin subunits are well known, it is likely that slightly different variants of these subunits may be involved in the lignin biosynthetic pathway in various plants. For example, studies suggest that both free monolignols and monolignol-4-coumarate esters may be substrates for lignin formation in grasses. The relative concentration of the monolignol residues in lignin varies among different plant species and within species. For example, the monolignol content for H/G/S of grasses, alfalfa and softwood gymnosperms is 22%/44%/34%, 7%/39%/54% and 14%/80%/6%, respectively (van Soest in “Nutritional Ecology of the Ruminant,” Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.). The composition of lignin may also vary among different tissues within a specific plant.
Coniferyl alcohol, para-coumaryl alcohol and sinapyl alcohol are synthesized by similar pathways (Whetten et al., Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 49:585–609, 1998; Guo et al., Plant Cell 13:73–88, 2001). The first step in the lignin biosynthetic pathway is the deamination of phenylalanine or tyrosine by phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) or tyrosine ammonia-lyase (TAL), respectively. In maize, the PAL enzyme also has TAL activity (Rosler et al., Plant Physiol. 113:175–179, 1997). The product of TAL activity on tyrosine is 4-coumarate, whereas the product of PAL activity on phenylalanine is cinnamate which is then hydroxylated by cinnamate 4-hydroxylase (C4H) to form 4-coumarate. 4-Coumarate is hydroxylated by coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H) to give caffeate. The newly added hydroxyl group is then methylated by caffeic acid O-methyl transferase (COMT) to give ferulate. Several other methylation reactions can be catalyzed by COMT, including caffeoylaldehyde to coniferaldehyde, and 5-hydroxyconiferaldehyde to sinapaldehyde. 4-Coumarate, caffeate and ferulate can all be conjugated to coenzyme A by 4-coumarate: CoA ligase (4CL) to form 4-coumaryl CoA, caffeoyl CoA and feruloyl CoA, respectively. Caffeoyl CoA can then be methylated by the enzyme caffeoyl-CoA O-methyl transferase (CAMT).
Coniferaldehyde is hydroxylated to 5-hydroxyconiferaldehyde by ferulate 5-hydroxylase (F5H). Reduction of 4-coumaryl CoA, caffeoyl CoA and feruloyl-CoA to 4-coumaraldehyde, caffeoyl aldehyde and coniferaldehyde, respectively, is catalyzed by cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR). Coumaraldehyde, caffeoyl aldehyde, coniferaldehyde and 5-hydroxyconfieraldehyde are further reduced by the action of cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) to give coniferyl alcohol which is then converted into its glucosylated form for export from the cytoplasm to the cell wall by coniferol glucosyl transferase (CGT). Recently a sinapyl alcohol dehydrogenase (SAD) was described that converts sinapaldehyde to sinapyl alcohol (Li et al., Plant Cell 13:1567–1586, 2001). Following export, the de-glucosylated form of coniferyl alcohol is obtained by the action of coniferin beta-gulcosidase (CBG). Finally, polymerization of the three monolignols to provide lignin is catalyzed by phenolase (PNL), laccase (LAC) and peroxidase (PER). For a more detailed review of the lignin biosynthetic pathway, see Whetton R and Sederoff R, The Plant Cell, 7:1001–1013, 1995 and Whetten et al., Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Plant Mol. Biol. 49:585–609, 1998.
Both lignin levels and composition have been changed in a range of plant species by altering the expression of specific lignin biosynthetic enzymes. For example, anti-sense 4CL constructs in transgenic aspen trees reduced lignin content from 20 to 11% (a 45% reduction) but at the same time increased both cellulose levels (by 15%) and growth rate (Hu et al. Nature Biotechnol. 17:808–812, 1999). These trees had the same level of total carbon, suggesting that carbon partitioning had been altered. Reducing 4CL by either anti-sense or sense-suppression in tobacco plants led to an accumulation of hydroxycinnamic acids in cell walls as well as a reduction in both guaiacyl and syringyl lignin units (Kajita et al., Plant Cell. Physiol. 37:957–965, 1996). In transgenic tobacco plants in which levels of C4H were reduced by anti-sense or sense suppression, total lignin content was reduced, in addition to a reduction in syringyl lignin units (Sewalt et al., Plant Physiol. 115:41–50, 1997). Reducing the levels of PAL in tobacco plants by anti-sense or sense-suppression reduced total lignin content but did not change the syringyl-guaiacyl (S:G) lignin ration. In alfalfa, reducing expression of COMT through either anti-sense or gene silencing decreased total lignin by decreasing the amount of guaiacyl units and resulted in a near total loss of syringyl lignin units (Guo et al., Plant Cell 13:73–88, 2001). In contrast, reducing CCOMT expression through anti-sense or gene silencing in alfalfa plants also decreased total lignin by reducing the total amount of guaiacyl lignin units but had no effect on the amount of syringyl lignin. Reducing CCR expression by anti-sense in tobacco plants resulted in reduced lignin content and increased S:G ratios due to lower guaiacyl lignin units (Piquemal et al., Plant J. 13:71–83, 1998). A. thaliana plants where the F5H gene had been mutated contained only traces of syringyl lignin (Marita et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:12323–12332, 1999).
Alteration of grass lignin composition may usefully be employed to maintain high forage digestibility throughout the year. This is most important when the plant is approaching flowering and/or during flowering. At this time, the entire lignin biosynthetic pathway will preferably be reduced, in particular lowering the amount of syringyl lignin units, thereby lowering the S:G ratio and maintaining the digestibility of the forage crop.
Several of the enzymes involved in the lignin biosynthetic pathway also have other functions within the plant. For example, PAL is a key enzyme of plant and fungi phenylpropanoid metabolism and catalyzes the first step in phenylpropanoid metabolism. It is involved in the biosynthesis of a wide variety of secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, furanocoumar in phytoalexins and cell wall components. These compounds have many important roles in plants during normal growth and in responses to environmental stress. PAL catalyzes the removal of an ammonia group from phenylalanine to form trans-cinnamate. PAL and the related histidine ammonia lyase are unique enzymes which are known to have the modified amino acid dehydroalanine (DHA) in their active site (Taylor et al., .J. Biol. Chem. 265:18192–18199, 1990). Phenylalanine and histidine ammonia-lyases (PAL) active site has a consensus of GTITASGDLVPLSYIA (SEQ ID NO: 219). The serine residue is central to the active site, and the region around this active site residue is well conserved (Langer et al., Biochem. 33:6462–6467, 1994).
C4H, which is a member of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase superfamily, plays a central role in both phenylpropanoid metabolism and lignin biosynthesis where it anchors a phenylpropanoid enzyme complex to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The phenylpropanoid pathway controls the synthesis of lignin, flower pigments, signaling molecules, and a large spectrum of compounds involved in plant defense against pathogens and UV light. This is also a branch point between general phenylpropanoid metabolism and pathways leading to various specific end products. 4 CLs are a group of enzymes necessary for maintaining a continuous metabolic flux for the biosynthesis of plant phenylpropanoids, such as lignin and flavonoids that are essential to the survival of plants, because they serve important functions in plant growth and adaptation to environmental perturbations. Three isoforms of 4CL have been identified with distinct substrate preference and specificities. Expression studies in angiosperms revealed a differential behavior of the three genes in various plant organs and upon external stimuli such as wounding and UV irradiation or upon challenge with fungi. One isoform is likely to participate in the biosynthetic pathway leading to flavonoids whereas the other two are probably involved in lignin formation and in the production of additional phenolic compounds other than flavonoids (Ehlting et al., Plant J. 19:9–20, 1999).
F5H is involved in the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway. It belongs to the CYP84 subfamily of the cytochrome P450 family and is known as cytochrome P450 84A1. F5H is one of the enzymes in the pathways leading to the synthesis of sinapic acid esters, but also has coniferaldehyde hydroxylase activity (Nair et al., Plant Physiol. 123:1623–1634, 2000). In the generalized pathway for phenylpropanoid metabolism, F5H catalyzes the formation of 5-hydoxyferulate (a precursor of sinapate) and sinapate in turn as the precursor for sinapine and for sinapoyl CoA in two bifurcated pathways (Chapple et al., Plant Cell 4:1413–1424, 1992). Sinapoyl CoA has been considered as the precursor for sinapyl alcohol, which is then polymerized into syringyl (S) lignin. In addition, CYP84 F5H product carries out the hydroxylation of coniferaldehyde (ConAld) to 5-OH ConAld (Nair et al., Plant Physiol. 123:1623–1634, 2000).
Peroxidases are heme-containing enzymes that use hydrogen peroxide as the electron acceptor to catalyze a number of oxidative reactions. They belong to a superfamily consisting of 3 major classes. Class III consists of the secretory plant peroxidases, which have multiple tissue-specific functions in removal of hydrogen peroxide from chloroplasts and cytosol, oxidation of toxic compounds, biosynthesis of the cell wall, defense responses towards wounding, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) catabolism and ethylene biosynthesis.
Fructan Biosynthetic Pathway
Plant carbohydrates can be divided into two groups depending on their function within the plant. Structural carbohydrates, such as cellulose, are usually part of the extracellular matrix. Non-structural, storage carbohydrates act as either long- or short-term carbohydrate stores. Examples of non-structural carbohydrates include starch, sucrose and fructans.
Fructans are polymers that are stored in the vacuole and that consist of linear and branched chains of fructose units (for review, see Vijn and Smeekens Plant Physiol. 120:351–359, 1999). They play an important role in assimilate partitioning and possibly in stress tolerance in many plant families. Grasses use fructans instead of starch as a water-soluble carbohydrate store (Pollock et al., in “Regulation of primary metabolic pathways in plants”, N. J. Kruger et al., (eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, pp195–226, 1999). Increasing the amount of fructans and sucrose in forage crops leads to an increase in the level of water-soluble carbohydrates and thereby enhances the nutritional value of the plants. In addition, increasing the amount of fructans in forage plants decreases m ethane production in animals fed the plants, thereby leading to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and decreases urea production in animals as less protein is degraded in the rumen (Biggs and Hancock, Trends in Plant Sci. 6:8–9, 2001). Fructans have also been implicated in protecting plants against water deficits caused by drought or low temperatures. Introduction of enzymes involved in the fructan biosynthetic pathway into plants that do not naturally synthesize fructans may be employed to confer cold tolerance and drought tolerance (Pilon-Smits, Plant Physiol. 107:125–130, 1995).
The number of fructose units within a fructan chain is referred to as the degree of polymerization (DP). In grasses, fructans of DP 6–10 are common. Such fructans of low DP are naturally sweet and are therefore of interest for use as sweeteners in foodstuffs. Long fructan chains form emulsions with a fat-like texture and a neutral taste. The human digestive system is unable to degrade fructans, and fructans of high D P may therefore be used as low-calorie food ingredients. Over-expression of enzymes involved in the fructan biosynthetic pathway may be usefully employed to produce quantities of fructans that can be purified for human consumption.
Five major classes of structurally different fructans have been identified in plants, with each class showing a different linkage of the fructosyl residues. Fructans found in grasses are of the mixed levan class, consisting of both (2-1)- and (2-6)-linked beta-D-fructosyl units (Pollock et al., in “Regulation of primary metabolic pathways in plants”, N. J. Kruger et al., (eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, pp195–226, 1999). Fructans are synthesized by the action of fructosyltransferase enzymes on sucrose in the vacuole. These enzymes are closely related to invertases, enzymes that normally hydrolyze sucrose.
Grasses use two fructosyltransferase enzymes to synthesize fructans, namely sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyltransferase (1-SST) and sucrose:fructan 6-fructosyltransferase (6-SFT) (Pollock et al., in “Regulation of primary metabolic pathways in plants”, N. J. Kruger et al., (eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, pp195–226, 1999). 1-SST is a key enzyme in plant fructan biosynthesis, while 6-SFT catalyzes the formation and extension of beta-2,6-linked fructans that is typically found in grasses. Specifically, 1-SST catalyzes the formation of 1-kestose plus glucose from sucrose, while 6-SFT catalyzes the formation of bifurcose plus glucose from sucrose plus 1-kestose and also the formation of 6-kestose plus glucose from sucrose. Both enzymes can modify 1-kestose, 6-kestose and bifurcose further by adding additional fructose molecules. Over-expression of both 1-SST and 6-SFT in the same plant may be employed to produce fructans for use in human foodstuffs (Sevenier et al., Nature Biotechnol 16:843–846; Hellwege et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 97:8699–8704,2000).
The synthesis of sucrose from photosynthetic assimilates in plants, and therefore the availability of sucrose for use in fructan formation, is controlled, in part, by the enzymes sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS) and sucrose phosphate phosphatase (SPP). Sucrose plays an important role in plant growth and development, and is a major end product of photosynthesis. It also functions as a primary transport sugar and in some cases as a direct or indirect regulator of gene expression (for a review see Smeekens, Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 1:230–234, 1998). SPS regulates the synthesis of sucrose by regulating carbon partitioning in the leaves of plants and therefore plays a major role as a limiting factor in the export of photoassimilates out of the leaf The activity of SPS is regulated by phosphorylation and moderated by concentration of metabolites and light (Huber et al., Plant Physiol. 95:291–297, 1991). Specifically, SPS catalyzes the transfer of glucose from UDP-glucose to fructose-6-phosphate, thereby forming sucrose-6-phosphate (Suc-6-P). Suc-6-P is then dephosphorylated by SPP to form sucrose (Lunn et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:12914–12919, 2000). The enzymes SPS and SPP exist as a heterotetramer in the cytoplasm of mesophyll cells in leaves, with SPP functioning to regulate SPS activity. SPS is also important in ripening fruits, sprouting tubers and germinating seeds (Laporte et al., Planta 212:817–822, 2001).
Once in the vacuole, sucrose can be converted into fructan by fructosyltransferases as discussed above, or hydrolyzed into glucose and fructose by the hydrolase enzymes known as invertases (Sturm, Plant Physiol. 121:1–7, 1999). There are several different types of invertases, namely extracellular (cell wall), vacuolar (soluble acid) and cytoplasmic, with at least two isoforms of each type of invertase normally being found within a plant species. In addition to having different subcellular locations, the different types of invertases have different biochemical properties. For example, soluble and cell wall invertases operate at acidic pH, whereas cytoplasmic invertases work at a more neutral or alkaline pH. Invertases are believed to regulate the entry of sucrose into different utilization pathways (Grof and Campbell, Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 28:1–12, 2001). Reduced vacuolar or cytoplasmic invertase activity in sink tissues may increase the level of water-soluble carbohydrates in plants. Plants contain several isoforms of cell wall invertases (CWINV), which accumulate as insoluble proteins. CWINV plays an important role in phloem unloading and in stress response. It hydrolyzes terminal non-reducing beta-D-fructofuranoside residues in beta-D-fructo-furanosides.
Another enzyme that acts upon sucrose in plants is soluble sucrose synthase (SUS). Recent results indicate that SUS is localized in the cytosol, associated with the plasma membrane and the actin cytoskeleton. Phosphorylation of SUS is one of the factors controlling localization of the enzyme (Winter and Huber, Crit. Rev. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 35:253–89, 2000). It catalyzes the transfer of glucose from sucrose to UDP, yielding UDP-glucose and fructose. Increasing the amount of SUS in a plant increases the amount of cellulose synthesis, whereas decreasing SUS activity should increase fructan levels. Increased SUS concentration may also increase the yield of fruiting bodies. SUS activity is highest in carbon sink tissues in plants and low in photosynthetic source tissues, and studies have indicated that SUS is the main sucrose-cleaving activity in sink tissues. Grasses have two isoforms of SUS that are encoded by separate genes. These genes are differentially expressed in different tissues.
Tannin Biosynthetic Pathway
Condensed tannins are polymerized flavonoids. More specifically, tannins are composed of catechin 4-ol and catechin monomer units, and are stored in the vacuole. In many temperate forage crops, such as ryegrass and fescue, foliar tissues are tannin-negative. This leads to a high initial rate of fermentation when these crops are consumed by ruminant livestock, resulting in both protein degradation and production of ammonia by the livestock. These effects can be reduced by the presence of low to moderate levels of tannin. In certain other plant species, the presence of high levels of tannins reduces palatability and nutritive value. Introduction of genes encoding enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of condensed tannins into a plant may be employed to synthesize flavonoid compounds that are not normally made in the plant. These compounds may then be isolated and used for treating human or animal disorders or as food additives.
Much of the biosynthetic pathway for condensed tannins is shared with that for anthocyanins, which are pigments responsible for flower color. Therefore, modulation of the levels of enzymes involved in the tannin biosynthetic pathway may be employed to alter the color of foliage and the pigments produced in flowers.
Most tannins described to date contain pro-cyanidin units derived from dihydroquercetin and pro-delphinidin units derived from dihydromyricetin. However, some tannins contain pro-pelargonidin units derived from dihydrokaempferol. The initial step in the tannin biosynthetic pathway is the condensation of coumaryl CoA with malonyl CoA to give naringenin-chalcone, which is catalyzed by the enzyme chalcone synthase (CHS). The enzyme chalcone isomerase (CHI) catalyzes the isomerization of naringenin chalcone to naringenin (also known as flavanone), which is then hydroxylated by the action of the enzyme flavonone 3-beta-hydroxylase (F3βH) to give dihydrokaempferol. The enzyme flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase (F3′OH) catalyzes the conversion of dihydrokaempferol to dihydroquercetin, which in turn can be converted into dihydromyricetin by the action of flavonoid 3′5′-hydroxylase (F3′5′OH). The enzyme dihydroflavonol-4-reductase (DFR) catalyzes the last step before dihydrokaempferol, dihydroquercetin and dihydromyricetin are committed for either anthocyanin (flower pigment) or proanthocyanidin (condensed tannin) formation. DFR also converts dihydrokaempferol to afzelchin-4-ol, dihydroquercetin to catechin-4-ol, and dihydromyricetin to gallocatechin-4-ol, probably by the action of more than one isoform. For a review of the tannin biosynthetic pathway, see, Robbins M. P. and Morris P. in Metabolic Engineering of Plant Secondary Metabolism, Verpoorte and Alfermann (eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers, the Netherlands, 2000.
While polynucleotides encoding some of the enzymes involved in the lignin, fructan and tannin biosynthetic pathways have been isolated for certain species of plants, genes encoding many of the enzymes in a wide range of plant species have not yet been identified. Thus there remains a need in the art for materials useful in the modification of lignin, fructan and tannin content and composition in plants, and for methods for their use.